Fried Goat Cheese Balls with Chipotle Aioli

About the music: this dish is 100% savory with a kick of spice. We chose some soulful jams with a little flare to them to match this dish. Plus, it’s probably going to be your appetizer so the music is a good jumping off point for the rest of your evening. The first artist, Michael Kiwanaka, was unknown to us a week ago, but his folk influence jazzed out jams have really won us over in recent listenings. As for the rest of the music, it’s hard to improve on the classics so we layed out a pretty star studded tracklist.

Serves: 8
Prep Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1 log of goat cheese
2 handfuls of bread crumbs
1 handful of crushed walnuts
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs whipped
Black pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste
Dried basil to taste

Chipotle Aioli:
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp chopped chives
2 minced garlic cloves
2 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp chipotle adobo sauce
(you can sub adobo for chipotle chili powder)

For the Aioli, combine and whisk all ingredients in a medium sized bowl until everything is blended together nicely. Check the heat level as you may want to add more hots, or lime if you were a little heavy-handed at the beginning. Once the spice level is right chill the aioli until the fried goat cheese is ready to serve.

Now for the cheese balls, take the goat cheese and combine it with the red pepper flakes, dried basil, and ground black pepper. Take out two plates and one bowl from your respective cabinets. Whisk the eggs together in the bowl and place the bread crumbs and walnuts on one of the plates, leaving the last one open so you can place the readied cheese balls on it. Form the cheese mixture into balls about half the size of a golf ball and then dip them into the eggs followed by the bread crumbs/walnuts until they are fully coated. Fill a small skillet with about a 1/4 of an inch of oil and start to heat it up. You are going to want to get the oil pretty hot, but not too hot…you know, that just right temperature where if the oil were porridge, Goldilocks would be chowing face on it. Carefully lower the cheese balls into the oil and wait until they have browned fully, flipping them as necessary. Remove them from the oil and place them upon a paper towel until you are ready to serve them, which should be right about know because they are delicious and I don’t know how you could hold off on eating them. Plate them up right and serve with a healthy dollop of aioli.

The Classic Cutlet

About the music: This is the classic cutlet, the kind of timeless sandwich that harkens back to the good ole days when things were simple. No synthesizers, no computers, just classic chunes. The playlist for this meal pays homage to this theme by including tracks from some of your favorite classic rock and soul artists. So fire up the skillet, press play on my good friend Paul down there and start cookin it up nice.

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
4 chicken cutlets
4 good roles (we used olive focaccia rolls)
4-6 slices mozzarella cheese
1 packet good prosciutto
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flower
2 eggs
italian spices to taste
parmesan cheese to taste
1 small red onion
1 big heirloom tomato
1 head green lettuce
healthy portion of chipotle aioli
Sandwich Funk Sauce

Directions:
Chicken cutlet sandwiches are my favorite sandwich, I have declared it to be so. First shown to me long ago in a far away place called the New York delicatessen, this DELIcacy has been a staple of my eating for the past eight years of my life. There is just something about the juicy chicken and the fresh roll and the veg and whatever sauce happens to be on it all melding together into one delicious ball of funk… man, just thinking about it makes me want to do a little jig. So prep your things, its sandwich (funk) time.

Like most meals, I like to prep all of my things before I get too deep into the recipe. That way, when things get cray in the middle, and cheese balls are burning in vegetable oil, and dogs are getting your carpet all muddy and your brother forgot to get the camera and stupid Comcast cancelled your recording of the presidential debate halfway through, at least your tomatoes will be cut. So slice your tomatoes, onion, and lettuce so they are ready to go when you need them. Also make sure you have whatever sauce you choose to throw on here ready. We topped it with our homemade chipotle aioli AND our homemade ketchup; that’s right, two sauces, whatchu know about two sauces!?

Next, heat the olive oil in a skillet until nice and hot, and fry your prosciutto until crispy. This should not take very long, it’s prosciutto. Now that all things have been prepped your ready for the main event. Get out three bowls. Bowl 1: crack and mix two eggs. Bowl two: flour. Bowl 3: breadcrumbs + italian seasonings + grated parmesan. Dip the chicken in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Rinse and repeat. Don’t actually rinse, just repeat. Place breaded chicken in a heated skillet with about 2 tbsp olive oil and cook through until golden brown.

Put the chicken on a baking dish and cover with mozzarella. Place under the broiler until cheese melts and take out. Add all delicious things you previously cut, stack on top as high as you are willing, and smear in your sauce of choice.

Sandwich Funk Sauce

About the music: Well, this is funksauce, and when you think funksauce it is hard to imagine, at least for me, any other music to listen to while making this besides the pure unadulterated funk. And by god we have really done it this time. What follows is one hour of music that just makes you want to take your pants off, grow an afro and dance around naked in your house. We cover all the bases, from the classics to those deep cuts you have probably never heard of. So press play, prep your sauce, and get dancing you funky people. Oh, did I mention that Falcon Punch mixed this himself, so you know its good.

Serves: all of your ketchuping needs
Prep time: 1-3 hours, depending on your patience level.

Ingredients:
1 white onion, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
28-ounce can of whole tomatoes
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 (or a litte more) cup brown sugar
2.5 tsp Maple syrup
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3 chipotle peppers in adobo
salt to taste

 

 

So this recipe is incredibly easy to make, and my oh my is it ever delicious. First, as always, hit play on the playlist and stretch it out a bit before groovin’ and chopping. Dice up your onion and throw it into a medium to large sized pot with the olive oil. Cook the onion on medium low heat until the edges start to brown up a little. Add in the tomatoes from the can along with all their tomatoey juices to the pot and crush up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Combine all of the rest of the ingredients into the pot and stir it up gingerly. Bring the mixture to a boil and then let it all simmer for about an hour, stirring when you are so inclined. After the simmering pot reaches a fragrance point so overwhelmingly potent that you can’t take it anymore, throw it in a food processor, or blender, or what have you and puree that shiz. Toss it in the fridge and wait till it cools down. Once chilled, devour it like a relentless beast.

If, after pureeing, the sauce isn’t at a desired thickness, continue to simmer it until it suits your fancy.

Adapted from the Homesick Texan 

Track List:
1. Sho Nuff – Funkasize You
2. Johnny Guitar Watson – Funk Beyond the Call of Duty
3. The Commodores – Brick House
4. Stevie Wonder – Superstition
5. Uptown Funk Empire – Celestial Blues ft. Ange
6. Uptown Funk Empire – Boogie
7. Ohio Players – Fire
8. Delegation – You and I
9. Shena – Nasty Little Rumor (Faze Action Remix)
10. Curtis Mayfield – Superfly
11. Bumblebee Unlimited – Lady Bug
12. Muscle Shoals Horns – Keep on Playin’ That Funky Music
13. Kool and the Gang – Ladies’ Night
14. Bar-Kays – Holy Ghost
15. 6ix – I’m Just Like You